Cities of the future

Posted by Dean van Leeuwen on 11th April 2011

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Urbanisation will be a massive demographic and powerful trends over the next decade. The world population growth is decreasing but it is still going to peak at around 9 billion people by 2050. In that time our cities will double in size as a further 3 billion people move from rural areas and live in cities. This will result in massive economic opportunities as well as place a lot of pressure on environmental, commercial and social systems.

McKinsey has developed a great interactive map of the development of cities aound the world between 2007 – 2025. It’s engaging and fun to play with. Below is an excerpt from their website about cities of the future and you can view the interactive map here

Explore the cities and emerging urban clusters that will drive dramatic growth and demographic changes over the next generation.

MARCH 2011 – Mckinsey Quarterly

Over the next 15 years, 600 cities will account for more than 60 percent of global GDP growth. Which of them will contribute the largest number of children or elderly to the world’s population? Which will see the fastest expansion of new entrants to the consuming middle classes? How will regional patterns of growth differ?

Explore these questions by browsing through the interactive global map below, which contains city-specific highlights from the McKinsey Global Institute’s database of more than 2,000 metropolitan areas around the world. You’ll see why growth strategies focused at the country level may fall short in the future: with new hot spots emerging and household wealth surging in little-known urban centers, companies may have to adopt a much finer-grained approach to tap into the growth that lies ahead.